Setting the Properties of a Menu Button in DVDStyler

[Lorgach]

Hi,
I’m a newbie and I hope that I’ve posted this question in the correct part of the Forum.
I‘m very new to DVD Authoring and I have just downloaded and started to use DVDStyler 1.8.1. This appears to be a good software package for someone like me, who just wants to learn about DVD authoring and to burn some Video recordings onto DVDs in a simple manner.

I have an AVI Video file that I created using Windows Movie Maker that has multiple clips and with Transitions between each of the Clips in it. I used DVDStyler to create a DVD that plays the full movie on my TV. This all worked out fine.

I'm now trying to figure how to use Menus with Buttons in DVDStyler so that I can enhance my DVDs.

I can show the picture of particular Frames of the movie as a background on each Button of the DVD Menu by setting this in the Button’s Properties.
However I can’t figure how to get the movie to start playing from this same Frame when the particular Button is clicked and then end on a specified Frame. (Eg. To jump to the Best Man’s speech or the Bride and Groom’s first dance in a wedding video).
I have read the Help and also the User Manual but they are very simplistic and of no help in this.
I would have thought that this would be a very basic requirement to be provided by the Buttons on a DVD Menu in an application such as DVDStyler but maybe I’m just missing something simple.
Any assistance would be appreciated.
Thanks

[rjd0309]

In DVD Styler, you can assign "actions" to a button that will be performed when the button is pressed. In order to "jump to the Best Man's speech" or "jump to the Bride & Groom's first dance", you first must assign chapter marks to those locations in your video. Then you'll be able to program your button to "jump to chapter 1" or "jump to chapter 2" etc.

Right-click on your video file in DVD Styler to open the properties window. You can enter Chapter marks as a comma separated list in HH:MM:SS.CC format. When you then return to the menu screen and right-click on the button to get the button properties window, you will now see that "Jump to chapter 1", "Jump to chapter 2" etc, are listed in the button-action drop-down list.

[Lorgach]

Hi rjd0309,
Thanks for the instructions, I have used them and it works great. When I click on the Button now the video starts playing from the new defined Chapter Marker and continues to the end of the Title.
Do you have any code that I could use to make the video stop and jump back to the Menu when it reaches the next Chapter Marker or alternativly, running the video from the new Chapter Marker for a pre-determined time and then jumping back to the Menu, rather than it running to the end of the full Title.
I'm greatful for you taking the time to answer my query.

Thanks,
Jim

[rjd0309]

As I understand your question, you want to press a menu button, play a certain segment of your video, and then return to the menu. The easiest way to do this would be to first divide your video into separate files, or 'titles'. Each segment that you wish to play would be contained in its own file.

Add each file as a separate title to DVD Styler by right-clicking on the project timeline area at the bottom of the screen, and choosing "Add File". (You can also find the "Add File" command in the main menu bar.) Your timeline will then show a single menu screen followed by as many separate titles as you have added.

After adding the titles, go back to the menu screen and right-click on a button to bring up the properties window. Now the drop-down Action list will contain a selection of possible VM commands that could be executed by a button-press, such as "jump to title 1", "jump to title 2", and so forth.

Each title can be right-clicked to set properties. From the Post Command drop-down box, select the command that returns to the menu. This will insert a VM command following your title, so that when your title is finished playing, execution will return to the menu.

Much of this information is contained in the DVD Styler manual, which can be downloaded from http://dvdstyler.sourceforge.net/docs/DVDStylerManual.pdf. Hope this helps.

[Lorgach]

Thanks again rjd0309,
I have read the Manual that you have the link to and it is quite good.
I notice that the Manual says that a Button that has a Jump to a Chapter will play the video starting at that Chapter and it says nothing about being able to specify where the clip should end. So I assume that there is no way of coding this into the Button Properties.
I already spotted the method that you suggest of breaking up the movie into a number of small clips (Titles). This would be very awkward as the movie would contain transitions etc and it would have to be broken again up after editing in Movie Maker and then each clip saved separately.
I was hoping that there would be an easy way that it could be done by using a line of Script but it is very difficult to find information or examples of this on the web.
Something along the lines of, for example "Jump to Title 1 Chapter 2; When Chapter = 3 go back to Menu" I know that this is not the proper syntax but I'm sure you know what I mean. As I said before, I would have thought that this would be a very basic requirement for a Button to provide.
Thanks again for all your help,
Jim

[rjd0309]

I'm not aware of any method for programming a "Chapter-End mark". I don't believe that this is a deficiency in DVD Styler, but a limitation of how a dvd player works.

Once the playback thread begins to play the program stream, wouldn't you need a parallel status-monitoring thread to signal when the playback thread reached the "Chapter-End Mark"? I don't think that dvd players work this way.

Perhaps someone with a greater understanding of this subject could shed more light on it?

[Ghitulescu]

Cell commands ;) but this would mean non-seamless play.

[Lorgach]

Sorry Ghitulescu,
I'm completely new to this and I don't understand your answer.
I know that there is a Script Code that can be used in certain circumstances but I don't have a clue as to how this can be used in a situation like this.
I would have thought that this sort of thing would be a very basic requirement for a DVD Authoring application, particulary when it is possible to build Menus at the start of the DVD that will allow you to jump to various parts of a Movie.
What I've learned so far is very good so I may just use this info and live with having to use the Remote to stop the clip at it's end and return to the Menu that way.

Thanks for your input.

[Lorgach]

Hi Again,

Just to update anyone who's interested in the solution to the problem that I outlined above.
I received excellent assistance from a member on the DVDStyler Forum and have now been able to achieve the results that I was looking for.
If you are interested you can read the method of doing it in the link below.

http://sourceforge.net/projects/dvdstyler/forums/forum/318795/topic/3739651

A new version of DVDStyler will be getting released hopefully soon and I believe that it will make it easier to use the <cell> command.

Regards to All,
Jim

[rjd0309]

Thanks for the update, Jim, and for the link to the discussion regarding the <cell> tag. Very helpful. :)

[Ghitulescu]

Cell commands ;) but this would mean non-seamless play.

Sorry Ghitulescu,
I'm completely new to this and I don't understand your answer.
I know that there is a Script Code that can be used in certain circumstances but I don't have a clue as to how this can be used in a situation like this.

I'm afraid there's no easy task for someone really newbie in this field. You have to create several PGCs that reuse the scenes (which will be seen as independent cells), but this would add navigation commands to each cell and thus any consecutive play, including the PLAY ALL button, would play them with pauses in between. I'm not sure DVDstyler can do this, the only application I'm aware of reusing the cells without duplicating (triplicating etc.) the space on the DVD being Scenarist (as a newbie you'll be able to learn all the features Scenarist has just in time for the diamond wedding :)). Maybe there are others.

However, if you just want to jump* (not to call**) a specific chapter, this is very easy to be done, all DVD authoring software have this possibility. DVdstyler is a good start, maybe you won't need at all to change it for another.

* jump - eg a jump to chapter 3 will play chapter 3, then chapter 4, then 5 and so on
** call - a call of chapter 3 means that chapter 3 is played, then the play resumes in the point where the call was made.